Short Take: General Hospital (1978-1987)

In 1978, Gloria Monty, a veteran director of daytime-TV soap operas, was hired to be executive producer and head showrunner of General Hospital, an ABC-network soap that was on the verge of cancellation. Over the next three years, she transformed the series into a pop-culture phenomenon and the most popular daytime soap to ever air on TV. Monty moved the show's emphasis from domestic and medical melodrama to the excitement of fanciful adventure serials, pulp-crime stories, and romance among the young and glamorous. The character ensemble she established couldn't have been more compelling. Among the more notable regulars: Luke Spencer (Anthony Geary), a straddling-both-sides-of-the-law antihero adventurer; Laura Webber (Genie Francis), Luke's major love interest; Robert Scorpio (Tristan Rogers), an Australian-born espionage and law-enforcement operative; Heather Webber (Robin Mattson), a devious, disturbed young woman who was key to the show's most compelling murder mystery; Scotty Baldwin (Kin Shriner), a sleazy young attorney who was Luke's frequent nemesis; Holly Sutton (Emma Samms), a high-stakes grifter from England; Anna Devane (Finola Hughes), a one-time confederate and lover of Scorpio's who wanted to hang the gun up for good, but never did; Frisco Jones (Jack Wagner), a handsome musician turned police officer; and Felicia Cummings (Kristina Malandro), Frisco's love interest, whose beauty was only surpassed by her talent for finding danger. The series was a pastiche of probably every pulp-suspense and romantic-melodrama plot out there. (The Ice Princess storyline, the program's most famous, while best known for the Luke and Laura romance, began as a play on The Maltese Falcon and ended as a James Bond-style adventure.) The show was irresistible, and until Monty departed in January 1987, the weekday 3PM hour was must-watch TV. Looking back, the only disappointment is that one had to be there to appreciate it. The hundreds if not thousands of hours of episodes encompassing Gloria Monty's tenure have not been collected on video, and given the volume of material, they probably never will be. Only scattershot YouTube compilations remain.

Short Take: RoboCop (1987)

Director Paul Verhoeven's dystopian action thriller RoboCop is a terrific adventure movie. It may also be the definitive satirical treatment of the 1980s on film. The setting is a near-future Detroit that's a right-wing nightmare of urban lawlessness, albeit without the racism. After a police officer (Peter Weller) is murdered by a crime boss (Kurtwood Smith) and his gang, the officer's remains are appropriated for an experimental cybernetics program. He is resurrected as RoboCop, the first in a proposed line of armored cyborg policemen. His memory was supposed to be erased, but it comes back to him in bits and pieces. He eventually remembers enough to pursue the gang members who ended his previous life. That runs him afoul of a corporate conspiracy to exacerbate crime levels for profit. At every turn, the film pillories corporate greed, keeping-up-with-the-Jones consumerism, and the cultural need to commodify everything. Verhoeven's gleefully transgressive tone makes the satire both vivid and hilarious. Even the film's violence, which would seem shockingly depraved in most contexts, is in keeping with the overall vision. Verhoeven keeps the picture thrillingly paced, and he's also put together a fine cast. Peter Weller is quite affecting as the police officer who becomes RoboCop. The character's eyes, once the armor's helmet is removed, eloquently carry the misery of not knowing the life he has lost. His voice, despite its monotone, carries the ache. Ronny Cox, Miguel Ferrer, and Dan O'Herlihy are sleazy perfection as the slick, sociopathic executives whose company both creates RoboCop and proves his ultimate antagonist. Best of all is Kurtwood Smith as the crime boss. Cackling homicidal maniacs have been a mainstay of crime-centered adventure stories since at least the 1940s, when the Batman comic books introduced the Joker. Several fine actors, including Richard Widmark, Frank Gorshin, and Heath Ledger, have done their most celebrated work in these roles. Smith's performance balances the sniggering viciousness with an air of ruthless determination, and he tops every one of them. The screenplay is credited to Edward Neumeier and Michael Miner. Jost Vacano provided the cinematography, and Frank J. Urioste delivered the top-notch editing. The picture was followed by two vastly inferior sequels and an insipid 2014 remake.